Akali Dal to focus on positive campaign for Punjab polls

With leaders of various parties indulging in verbal barbs in Punjab in recent months, the ruling Shiromani Akali Dal's patron Parkash Singh Badal has told party leaders and workers to focus on the development plank and a positive poll campaign.

"The Akali Dal rank and file should be ready to contest the forthcoming elections on the development plank and I ask them to lead a positive campaign focusing on the work done by the SAD-BJP government during the last about 10 years," Badal told a meeting of senior Akali leaders including members of parliament, ministers, legislators, district party presidents and other key functionaries, here on Friday.

Badal, the Punjab Chief Minister, asked the party leaders and workers not to be distracted by opposition parties, which he said "were hell bent upon making false promises with the sole purpose of deceiving the people".

"Be it fulfilment of major promises, social welfare schemes, development projects or even construction of yaadgaari (memorial) monuments, the SAD-BJP government had delivered in every aspect of governance. Heritage works, including the heritage street, partition museum and interpretation centre, which have come up at Amritsar, have put Amritsar on the world map," Badal said.

The ruling Akali Dal-BJP alliance, which has been in office in Punjab since 2007, is being challenged by the main opposition Congress and a new entrant in Punjab's political space, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), for the assembly elections early next year.

Akali Dal President Sukhbir Singh Badal urged the party leadership to "expose the false promises being made by the Congress as well as Aam Aadmi Party".

Sukhbir Badal said that debt tribunals were being established in all districts to ensure all loans taken by farmers were settled at the earliest.

"Steps are being taken to ensure farmers did not have to pay any interest on cooperative loans. We have done the most for the farmers and we are proud of it," Sukhbir said.

He said that the AAP was a "fly-by-night" operator and was misleading people in Punjab.

The state assembly has 117 constituencies, to which elections are due early next year.

--IANS

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